Bids were flying -- really high bids -- in the packed salesroom at Christie’s New York during its post-war and contemporary art auction on the evening of Nov. 8, 2005. By the end of the rather long sale -- 70 lots, five or ten more than usual -- 66 works, or 94 percent, had sold for a total of $157,441,600, well above the total presale high estimate of $145.6 million. "It was a very high quality sale, mirrored by the extraordinary results," said Christie’s chief auctioneer Christopher Burge, with more than his usual enthusiasm.